International Night, April 12, 2018

Imugi! The Korean-American Dream...

​PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Chloe Kim’s dad repeated one word as his daughter stood at the top of the Olympic halfpipe for her victory lap, gold medal already assured.“Imugi!” Jong-Jin Kim yelled, standing well behind the finish corral. “Imugi!”Earlier Tuesday morning, Jong texted his 17-year-old daughter, a first generation Korean-American, before the biggest contest of her life.“Today is the day imugi turns to dragon,” Jong said he messaged her. “She said hahahahaha, thank you very much.”It’s a story that Kim has heard over and over again, according to an ESPN profile.

“She was born in year of dragon,” Jong continued Tuesday morning. “To be a dragon in Korean tradition is to wait 1,000 years. Before [you are] a simple snake, like an anaconda. But they wait about 1,000 years, and then they turn to dragon. Go to the sky, and they make a big dragon with a gold pearl. She’s got a gold pearl in her mouth. I texted her this morning that this is the time to be dragon.”

Later Tuesday afternoon, Kim laughed when explaining how her dad texts – phone held in his outstretched hand, tapping the screen with the index finger from his other hand.“[My dad] was like, let’s be a dragon today!” Kim said of the pre-contest text. “I was like, ok, no pressure or anything, but I’ll try my best. Just emerge from the earth. … Something has to be right about it. It turned out pretty well. If I’m a dragon, I’m down.”